Sudan: News Briefs, 5/6/99

SUDAN: IRIN News Briefs, 6 May

Government dispatches mujahadeen to defend oil fields

Khartoum has sent out a first batch of "Protectors
of Oil Brigade" mujahadeen (Islamic volunteers)
to defend the industry, army spokesman Lieutenant-General
Mohamed Osman Yassin said on Sudanese TV on Wednesday.
He accused the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army
(SPLA) "and those who supply them with funds and
equipment" of wanting to deny the Sudanese people
their resources. He said the mujahadeen were ready
"to repulse any aggression and defeat conspiracy".
Sudan is building a 1,000-mile oil pipeline from southern
oilfields to Port Sudan and plans to export its first
shipment of crude oil by 30 June.

Rebels reportedly targeting oil facilities in the south
and east

Government forces also claimed on Wednesday to have
repulsed rebel attacks on oil installations in the
south and east of the country. In a radio statement,
Yassin said the SPLA had attacked Ler in southern Unity
state on Sunday, and other unnamed "traitors and
agents" had attacked Rasai in the eastern state
of Kassala. "The attack on Ler targeted the country's
oil production, while that on Rasai aimed at the oil
pipeline and highway", Yassin said.

AFP news agency reported a claim on Wednesday by the
opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) that
it had destroyed a government military convoy in Kassala
state, causing "massive destruction". NDA
forces are trying to cut off the Port Sudan-Khartoum
road, the NDA statement said.

Eritrea denies bombing Rasai

Asmara has denied that its forces shelled a Sudanese
village along the countries' joint border. A report
in a Sudanese government-owned newspaper, 'Al Anbaa',
said the attack took place in the Rasai region, but
the BBC on Thursday quoted an Eritrean government spokesman
as saying the report was totally false and made no
sense in the wake of Sunday's reconciliation accord.

Unfreezing of businessman's assets shows up US "falsehood"

Sudan has said that the US Treasury's decision on Monday
to unfreeze the American assets of Saleh Idris, owner
of the pharmaceutical plant destroyed in a US air raid
last August, "testifies to the falsehood of the
accusations against Sudan and to the erroneous attack
on the factory on grounds that it produced chemical
weapons". Junior foreign minister Ali Abdel Rahman
Al-Nimeiri on Wednesday called on the US to pay compensation
to those affected in the air strike and to reconsider
all measures it has imposed on Sudan, "including
all forms of political, economic and commercial sanctions".

Opposition leaders expected to return

Sadeq al-Mahdi, opposition Umma party leader and former
prime minister, will return to Sudan soon, after a
self-imposed exile, according to Speaker of Parliament
Hassan al-Turabi, quoted by Reuters on Thursday. Mahdi
was deposed in the 1989 military coup that brought
President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to power.

Turabi, who met Mahdi for talks in Geneva earlier this
week, said there had also been contact with other opposition
figures, neighbouring states and western countries
to promote reconciliation and end the civil war in
the south. On Tuesday, former Sudanese president Jaafar
Nimeiri said he planned to end 14 years of exile and
return to Sudan to set up a political party with the
government's consent.